


At The Present Time

by AlexSeanchai



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M, Identity Reveal, Inspired by Fanart, Inspired by Fanfiction, Ladrien | Adrien Agreste/Marinette Dupain-Cheng as Ladybug, Marriage Proposal, Podfic Welcome, Puns & Word Play, Romantic Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-18
Updated: 2020-11-18
Packaged: 2021-03-10 02:34:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,665
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27616307
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlexSeanchai/pseuds/AlexSeanchai
Summary: "I have the start of a long-term plan," Ladybug murmured, almost in Adrien's ear, "and I'm not telling my partner without your approval."
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Comments: 21
Kudos: 229





	At The Present Time

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Socchan](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Socchan/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Your Presents Required](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24895783) by [Socchan](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Socchan/pseuds/Socchan). 



> Me last month: oh hey I have an idea for a sequel to Socchan's fluffbit "Your Presents Required"! *writes 1.4K, stalls for a month*
> 
> Me last week: —somebody's birthday's coming up and I have _nothing_
> 
> Me yesterday: …oh hey
> 
> Me now, a week and a half early: I'm impatient. 🦛🐦🐑🐑❣  
> 
> 
> [Marinette's Chinese name](https://alexseanchai.tumblr.com/post/622935969483636736/bc-marinette-deserves-a-chinese-name) is credit e-milieeee. (This link refers to unaired spoilers, but if you stop before any of the reblog comments, you'll avoid the spoilers.)
> 
> Assume [something like these bits](https://alexseanchai.tumblr.com/post/610893892983881728/every-so-often-ladybug-breaks-adrien-out-of-his) by ghostlyhamburger and me span the at least a couple of years between "Your Presents Required" and this.

"Really? I would never have noticed," Ladybug told her text app, annoyed. Casually holding her phone to obscure the top of her screen (as another text notification dropped) and the in-app navigation (since he would absolutely recognize Marinette's profile pic), she showed Adrien the Instagram photo Alya sent.

Adrien heaved a sigh. "I bet I can figure out where the photographer is by camera angle," he told her, glancing around the rest of the seating area and up and down the street before getting out his own phone. "If you think I should go tell them to stop."

"Mm, that might make it worse." Ladybug eyed the third text, sent one reply, and turned her phone face down on the café table:

> _plum out of luck:_ he looks really happy!

"On the bright side, now we know this disguise works." Clearly none of Alya, Mylène, and Rose knew the face behind the big dark sunglasses, high collar, and ladybug-embroidered black bucket hat was Marinette's.

"I think I should leave them a comment, at least," Adrien said consideringly, or possibly considerately. "Once someone screenshots it to their own post, everyone will know you're hiding your face because you're ashamed to be seen with me."

"Ex _cuse_ you—"

Adrien grinned at her, showing her his draft reply comment. "No other reason, Duchess."

> **adrienagrestebrand** : I commissioned her Grace's hat from the incredibly talented **@marinettedesigned**! I asked for extra floppy brim because a lady must keep SOME secrets. 🥰

Oh. Ladybug rolled her eyes and, so she would have an excuse to be pink-cheeked, removed the red kidskin glove from her right hand to bring Adrien's left hand to her lips. "No other reason at all," she agreed, smirking at Adrien's own poorly hidden blush, and swiped his phone to correct 'the incredibly talented' to 'my incredibly talented friend'.

"I can't say that!" Adrien protested, correcting it back before posting the comment. "She doesn't want—oh, that was fast," he said, blinking at the new newest photo from the same user, which showed Adrien's mystery date kissing his hand.

"…Maybe we should find a different café."

"—Is something wrong?" Adrien pocketed his phone and squeezed her hand. "If you don't want to deal with cameras after all, we can try again later—"

"I don't care if you don't." Which was exactly what Adrien had said to Ladybug before the first of these dates. The problem was, no one had seemed to have paid them any particular attention on the rest of these dates, when they weren't talking about anything any more life-changing than that they were on a date. Ladybug stared down at their joined hands. "Not about the cameras, anyway. I wanted to talk about work."

"Oh." Adrien scooted his chair closer to hers at once, then reached for his mostly-empty coffee cup and paused. "Do you want another coffee, or a hot chocolate, or anything?"

"Yes."

While he was ordering more drinks, Ladybug tangled and untangled and tangled her fingers, resisting the temptation to open her purse to talk to Tikki. What a silly idea this all was. Discussing it with Adrien before Chat Noir, even worse! Adrien was sure to take it wrong, and break up with her, and start dating someone beautiful and talented and famous, probably the female lead of the movie Marinette knew (and Ladybug wasn't supposed to know) Adrien was in talks to costar in—

She'd halfway talked herself into offering to design the bridal gown for Adrien and Séréna's wedding when Adrien set two full mugs on the table. "Breathe," he reminded her, squeezing both her shoulders from behind. He made a grumpy noise and pressed harder on one spot on the right side: "Why is there _always_ a knot here?"

"That's the rotator cuff," Ladybug observed, dry, and took the mug with whipped cream. "Pumpkin spice mocha? I love you."

"That would do it," Adrien agreed, sitting down. "I want to give you an actual massage later." Then did a double-take, almost knocking over his own mug. "No," he said firmly, "I'm not asking you to repeat that. You wanted to talk about work."

"It bears repeating." Ladybug took another long swallow of her coffee, partly to hide how pleased she was that she'd said it without tripping over the words this time, and scooted her chair right up against his so she could cuddle right up against him. "I have the start of a long-term plan," Ladybug murmured, almost in Adrien's ear, "and I'm not telling my partner without your approval."

"—What for?"

"I," Ladybug began, and stopped. "When you," and she stopped again.

Adrien switched his mug to his left hand, the better to hold her with. "Take your time."

"I want to ask him to marry me," Ladybug blurted, fortunately no louder than before.

He swore and grabbed a napkin to wipe the splashed coffee off his hand.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry—"

" _Breathe_ ," Adrien reminded her, then frowned at the soggy napkin. "Let me wash this off. I'll be right back." He kissed the top of her head before vanishing into the restroom.

That was the only reason Marinette didn't bolt.

"So, fun fact," Adrien said when he sat back down, "almost everything that goes into pumpkin spice is pretty fiery, magically speaking. Energy, passion, determination, prosperity, good luck, happiness." He drank some of the peppermint mocha that remained in the cup, instead of in the napkins Ladybug had tried to mop up with. "You know, stuff I want for you."

Ladybug blinked at him.

Adrien smiled, without a trace of wryness or insincerity that she could see. "The only reason I can think of why you'd give me veto power here is if you're afraid you'll hurt me. And the only reason I can think of why I'd want to use it is if you're afraid he'll hurt you."

"I mean, he's—he might be dating someone," Ladybug told him, "you know, outside work." Chat Noir definitely was, but Ladybug was definitely not supposed to share that. "And I couldn't expect them to understand—not that I can expect you to understand! But at least you _know_ , and—"

He stopped her with two fingers to her lips. "He's more important to you than I am. I knew that going in. If—" Adrien paused. "I have a horrible feeling that someone is trying to listen in."

Ladybug groaned. "Let me finish my coffee and then let's go for a walk?"

* * *

Ladybug found a rooftop niche to feed Tikki in while Chat Noir soothed the akuma victim (one Julienne) and one of her targets. He caught up to Ladybug a few minutes later, also freshly recharged. "I hope Roxane has learned something about invading people's privacy," he remarked, flipping open his baton to search Instagram for #AdrienAgreste, "and I hope Julienne finds someone to lust after who knows and likes her and who isn't dating a mystery person wearing a ladybug on her hat. I'm very glad Adrien and this Grace girl got clear in time."

She flicked his ear. "My name's not Grace."

"No? It would suit you."

Chat Noir was there to witness more of her spectacular wipeouts than anyone but her parents, Alya, and Adrien. "My name is Madly Clumsy," Ladybug told him. "I said that when we met. There's something I need to talk to you both about," she added, texting Adrien to ask where they should come find him. "I was in the middle of trying to ask him about it when, well."

"Ugh, yeah." Chat fiddled with his baton some more; Ladybug was afraid to ask how many photos of her date with Adrien Instagram had. "I'm in the middle of applying for jobs, because the last thing I want is to live off my fa—anyone's charity, but how am I supposed to accept any position where anyone will notice me going missing at random times?" Chat flopped over and started licking his forearm; Ladybug did not in any way want to call his attention to this, for fear he'd get self-conscious and stop being cute. Between licks, he added, "That is not how you keep in good standing with the industry!"

Ladybug winced. "That's part of what I want to talk to you two about. But maybe it's a bad idea." She checked her phone:

> _Play On Words:_ I need to get home before I get in too much more trouble. Talk to your partner. Do whatever makes you happy.
> 
> _Make My Own Luck:_ okay okay 🥰

"But I have at least part of a go-ahead," Ladybug continued, "and…and I'm not doing so great at university, you know, or at the job that pays me, and—and if I die and you don't know it's me, what happens to the Miracle Box? My parents don't know anything, Chaton, and Papa doesn't always know when to keep his mouth shut—and who'd tell you?" Trembling, she realized her partner had sat back up to wrap one arm around her and pull her close, where the vibration and warmth could soothe her. She must sound awful, if he wasn't feeling even a little self-conscious about purring. "Who would know to tell you?"

Chat Noir shuddered.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry…" There, pressed all the way up against his side. Much better. "But I have a solution. Or part of a solution. If—if you're both good with it."

"Mm?"

It wasn't _much_ of a question; the sound was hardly audible over Chat's purr. Ladybug gathered her courage. "He has money," she said, as though it wasn't the most banal possible observation short of 'he's pretty', "and he's not going to have any trouble getting more. Not with how in-demand he seems to be in that industry. He could hire me, civilian me, I mean, to be his secretary or something—please help me figure out a better way to phrase that," she added when Chat started snickering, "—and you could marry me."

Had he even _heard_ her? Or was the thought just that hilariously absurd?

"So you want to be Adrien's Nathalie," Chat said a minute or two later when he'd caught his breath. "Or possibly his sugar baby. To marry _me_."

"Oh screw you," grumbled Ladybug. This was not going how she'd planned. At all. "Screw my reputation while we're at it, I don't care, I have people to protect."

Chat lost it again.

"If you don't want to do it, just _say_ so." Ladybug was already bracing for exactly that, and watching for the inevitable purple butterfly.

"Hey, whoa, when did I say I don't want to?"

He took her shoulders, turning to meet her eyes, and squeezed, gentle, grounding, like a thousand times before. Green eyes wide and worried—gold irises, slit pupils, green sclerae, and it wasn't that she'd spent any time thinking about the wedding ceremony, of course, or dating long enough it wouldn't shock her friends too horribly, or even faking a meet-cute if (as was likely) Marinette hadn't met the man behind her partner's mask before, but all those scenes would have to have the round emerald eyes she knew from any time he was taking a turn at being the city's Coccinelle.

It didn't fit. The pieces never fit. If she was envisioning kissing someone with ordinary human green eyes, she was always seeing Adrien's soft expression.

"My lady?"

"I'm okay," Ladybug mumbled. "I just. I don't want to hurt either of you."

Chat stifled a snort. "I still have the rest of the ribbon from that unbirthday present. You know, in case you need me or him tied in knots for you." He paused. "Tying any knots? Tied up in—"

"I _knew_ you rehearsed those." Ladybug let herself slump forward again, closer to his heart. —To his purring chest. —To his, probably midway between torrid and ardent when bare except for red shibari ropes, distinctly well-muscled chest. Add Adrien to that thought, about as clothed—

And her partner and her boyfriend had been conspiring together since day one of Ladybug dating Adrien _anyway_ —

She pulled away. "Okay, you know what, let's get one potentially mortifying part of this conversation out of the way while my face is already on fire."

If not for the smirk tugging at one corner of his mouth, Chat Noir would look as though his every thought were cool and clean as autumn rain.

"Close your eyes," Ladybug told him. "Don't peek."

"I would never!"

"I know." She opened her yo-yo to pull out a silver-ladybug-topped hatpin, the bow she'd tied the original pink ribbon into (cutting it was unthinkable, even if it _did_ end up with tails past her knees), and a gift tag on a string. "Tikki, spots off."

"Oh," said Chat Noir, sounding distinctly surprised and more than a bit perplexed. Then "— _Oh_. Because the paperwork will need both our names." A pause; Marinette looped the gift tag string back on itself around the hatpin. "What happens if we don't already know each other?"

Marinette shrugged, then remembered he couldn't see it. "That's easier, really."

"She has a folder full of potential meet-cutes," Tikki said helpfully from somewhere above and behind her shoulder. "She'll narrow it down once she knows where she's likely to coincidentally run into a tall, dark, and handsome stranger like you."

"Tikki! You didn't have to _say_ that!" Ow! Of course Marinette would stab herself while getting the ribbon onto the pin. Why would she expect otherwise. "You don't have to return the favor, Chat. Not if you don't want to."

"…You know I've wanted you to know my name since we were kids, right?" When Marinette didn't answer, busy with securing the hatpin to her hat, Chat Noir frowned, eyes still squeezed shut. "Please don't tell me you're worried I'll think less of the lady on the other side of your mask."

 _Do you want me to lie to you?_ Marinette almost asked. She settled the hat back on her head instead, the bow over one ear, and removed the sunglasses. "You can look."

Chat Noir cracked one eye open. Then the other, blinking rapidly. "Happy unbirthday to me," he breathed, eyes shining, reaching to run one bent knuckle over the bare skin beside her eye. " _Marinette_."

She trembled, feeling her face heat further, nibbling her lip.

"See," said Tikki, smug.

"You actually thought I'd think less of you." Chat Noir shook his head with a little laugh. "Du—dumb, that, my lady. I'm only disappointed because it turns out there's only _one_ extraordinary woman in my life." Marinette blinked. Chat smirked, plucking the gift tag from her hat. "I need to go conspire with your boy-toy. See you tonight?"

"He's not—"

She stopped before shouting to a whole city block, half of it between him and her, that Adrien could not be accurately described by anything as flippant and vaguely deriding as 'boy-toy'. Ladybug had lost the first and all following rounds of that argument when Chat Noir presented her with Adrien in a gift bow anyway.

Her phone chimed:

> _punfortunate:_ say, what's your ring size
> 
> _plum out of luck:_ Please don't tell me you're getting him to buy me an engagement ring.
> 
> _punfortunate:_ well that's my plan torn to ribbons
> 
> _punfortunate:_ but, you know, don't gift up, don't gift in 😈

> _Play On Words:_ Hey, what's your ring size?
> 
> _Make My Own Luck:_ omg tell him to not
> 
> _Play On Words:_ No 😇
> 
> _Make My Own Luck:_ oh all right. tell him to ask P, he'd know better than I would
> 
> _Make My Own Luck:_ and if it costs more than a week's pay by my standards, I'll be too afraid of losing it to wear it
> 
> _Play On Words:_ Oh all right. It will still be a ring of beauty!

She was so, so screwed.

* * *

"Adrien isn't answering his phone," Alya said the moment Marinette joined the video call. "Do _you_ know who he was out with this afternoon?"

Marinette stared directly at the camera for five seconds, unimpressed, and went back to her preliminary sketches. There wasn't going to be _time_ to make whole outfits from start to finish, probably, and the faster a whirlwind this was, the less time there would be…

"Half the people tweeting hashtag Adrien Agreste think he went to that jeweler's to buy an engagement ring," Mylène told her. "I think that's a stretch. I mean, this _is_ the first time anyone's seen him out on a date."

"If we don't count any time the person he was seen on a quote-unquote date with was Marinette," Alix added.

Marinette thumped her head down on the sketch of a red tuxedo coat under wild gold hair. She couldn't wear red herself, not when marrying Chat Noir, not when he was wearing all black, but…

"It might be the first time they went on a date when he wasn't disguised," Rose suggested. "Grace doesn't look like she's very comfortable. Especially when he isn't right there."

"How do you know her name's Grace?" Marinette wondered. Had she complimented Adrien on that bit of subterfuge? If she hadn't, she needed to. She reached for a black colored pencil, then paused: the modern European white wedding gown might be entirely the doing of Victoria Hanover, replacing bridal finery of whatever was already the bride's best and without objecting if that meant black, but that didn't mean Marinette wearing Chat Noir's colors would _look_ like a bride. Maybe blue?

"—must be British," Alya was saying. "Or maybe American? Marinette, what do you think?"

"I think I don't want to gossip about his love life. I think you could wait a few hours until he checks his phone and decides to tell you. Assuming he decides to tell you." —That might be a bit more tart than necessary…

"Assuming who tells who what?"

Marinette shrieked and fell out of her chair.

Adrien laughed and scooped her up, standing. (How did he always catch her—?) "Sorry, I thought you heard me knock. Is this a private conversation, or can I join?"

"You don't want to," Marinette said at once. "Alya's been blowing up your phone."

"Aha." Adrien grinned at the webcam, a sly and entirely too pleased-with-himself sort of smile that would fit perfectly on Chat Noir's face. "Patience, dear friends. Marinette, balcony?"

Plainly she was being conspired against again. Marinette headed up there, Adrien on her heels. Tikki beat them both up there, but to Marinette's surprise, her balcony was otherwise empty.

"I only spent the price of resizing this," Adrien told her, starting to work the knot out of her right rotator cuff almost before closing the skylight. "So you don't get to be mad at me."

"Hm?" Oh, he could stop that just about never. Where was her partner, though? If Chat Noir had told Adrien to bring her up here—

"This was his mother's." Plagg darted around her head, carrying something small with a gift tag fluttering at the end of its string. "Your boy-toy doesn't think it was special enough to her that his father will notice it went missing."

Tikki huffed, somewhere out of sight. "That man—!"

Wait. If Plagg was—and Tikki, when—

Marinette reached out to take the gift tag and the silvery ring tied to it, with three faceted stones set flush in the metal, two white, one black. One side of the tag read _Kitty_ in Marinette's own affected, too-neat handwriting: the same tag she'd pinned to her own head earlier this evening. The other read _Méiyùn_ twice over, both 梅運 and 媒惲 in Adrien's careful calligraphy: 'plum blossom' and 'luck' was the correct way to write her name, and 'matchmaker' and 'plan' was probably her partner's idea of being clever.

"Maman and Aunt Amélie were born in April," Adrien murmured. "Diamond birthstone. And black sapphire. I would have had an uncle with a September birthday, but…" He stopped, his hands stilling. "Anyway, it was Grandmother's so Father won't care, and it's one of the least likely to catch on your knitting of any of the rings Maman's ever worn."

She swallowed. "Chat Noir? Is this—are you—"

"I want to marry you." Adrien cleared his throat. "If you'll still have me, Princess."

Marinette whirled around to meet his eyes, soft and emerald green and— _Are you **nervous**?_ she almost asked, disbelieving, but so much easier just to launch herself up to prove he shouldn't be.

—Or to overbalance them both badly enough to dump themselves and Marinette's potted rosemary on the floorboards. Whichever.

" 'Grace'," Marinette muttered, rubbing her hip where it'd collided with her giant-spool table. "Perfect name to distance her from me. —What's so funny?"

"Nothing!" Tikki protested, tackling the uproariously amused Plagg into the lavender pot.

"Plagg's been laughing himself sick about my love life since we met. Ignore him." Adrien righted the rosemary pot. "I still think it suits you, Duchess."

Marinette snorted, sliding the ring onto her finger and herself onto his lap. "Who needs grace when you have charm?"

Adrien burst out laughing. "I love you so much. I don't love your whole plan," he continued before she could properly register the words she'd never expected Adrien to say to Marinette, or Chat Noir to say to Ladybug again. "I got my past roles because Father was funding the projects, and everyone knows it. And some of the people I've worked with don't think much of my work ethic."

She had not, in fact, known any of that; thinking about it, though, possibly she should have. Marinette shrugged. "We'll manage. Hey, do you want to see my older designs for my bridal gown? They're kind of all over the place, and some were…very fourteen. But a lot of them are decent wed-carpet looks." She paused. "Though the girls are already overinvested, so maybe we should stay up here and not dress our luck."

Adrien kissed the side of her head, laughing too hard to speak.

**Author's Note:**

> [My comment policy](https://alexseanchai.tumblr.com/post/612627045048008704/as-a-fic-writer-i-need-every-reader-to-know): tl;dr happy comments make me happy. So do thinky comments, of course, but there exist jerks who think only thinky comments are worth anyone leaving.
> 
> Find me on [Dreamwidth](https://alexseanchai.dreamwidth.org/) and [Tumblr](https://alexseanchai.tumblr.com/).


End file.
